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CSLI Calendar, 10 May, vol. 5:27




       C S L I   C A L E N D A R   O F   P U B L I C   E V E N T S
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10 May 1990                     Stanford                       Vol. 5, No. 27
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    A weekly publication of the Center for the Study of Language and
Information (CSLI), Ventura Hall, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-4115
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	    CSLI ACTIVITIES FOR THIS THURSDAY, 10 MAY 1990

12:00 noon		TINLunch
      Cordura 100	Logical Consequence and Model-Theoretic
			Consequence, I: Etchemendy's Critique of the
			Tarskian Analysis
			Greg O'Hair
			Visiting Scholar from The Flinders University
			of South Australia
			Abstract in last week's Calendar

 2:15 p.m.		CSLI Seminar
      Cordura 100	Controversies in Natural-Language Research 4
			led by Stanley Peters 
                        Title: Derivation vs. Constraints in Syntax
			Speakers: Joan Bresnan, Ivan Sag, Peter Sells
			(bresnan@csli.stanford.edu, sag@csli.stanford.edu,
			sells@csli.stanford.edu)
			(peters@csli.stanford.edu)
			Abstract in last week's Calendar
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	    CSLI ACTIVITIES FOR NEXT THURSDAY, 17 MAY 1990

12:00 noon		TINLunch
      Cordura 100	Logical Consequence and Model-Theoretic
			Consequence, II: Lessons and Perspectives
			Greg O'Hair
			Visiting Scholar from The Flinders University
			of South Australia
			Abstract below

 2:15 p.m.		CSLI Seminar
      Cordura 100	Controversies in Natural-Language Research 5
			led by Stanley Peters 
			(peters@csli.stanford.edu)
			Title: Derivation vs. Constraints in Syntax
			Speakers: Joan Bresnan, Ivan Sag, Peter Sells
			(bresnan@csli.stanford.edu, sag@csli.stanford.edu,
			sells@csli.stanford.edu)
			Abstract below
			     ____________
				   
			 NEXT WEEK'S TINLUNCH
       Logical Consequence and Model-Theoretic Consequence, II:
		       Lessons and Perspectives
			     Greg O'Hair

The previous talk examined John Etchemendy's arguments against the
Tarskian analysis of logical truth and logical consequence.  In this
talk, I look at some possible reactions to his critique, and some
perspectives suggested by it.
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		       NEXT WEEK'S CSLI SEMINAR
	     Controversies in Natural-Language Research 5
		 Derivation vs. Constraints in Syntax
		 Joan Bresnan, Ivan Sag, Peter Sells

We will address the issue of how to characterize the various levels of
structure needed in syntax: Should there be uniformity across levels,
as in RG and GB?  Should the underlying levels of structure of UG be
characterized in the formal categorial structure of familiar standard
European languages (INFL, VP, etc.), as in GB?  And generally, how
abstract is/are underlying levels of syntactic representation?
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			SYMBOLIC SYSTEMS FORUM
		       The Problem of Idle Time
			    B. A. Huberman
		   Xerox Palo Alto Research Center
		     Thursday, 10 May, 4:15 p.m.
			Building 60, Room 61G
         
In any distributed organization -- be it social or computational -- it
is often the case that strong differences arise in the amount of work
performed by the individual components.  This unfairness of use
results in strong departures from optimality for the system as a
whole, a situation that is often corrected by a number of procedural
and structural changes.

This talk will describe the dynamics of resource allocation in
computer networks and show how fairness of use cannot be achieved
beyond a critical size.  I will then demonstrate how the establishment
of a hierarchy of process transfer rates allows for optimal and stable
dynamical load balance in very large systems.  I will also describe
the effects of information delays on fairness of use and show that
oscillations in resource utilization appear when such delays exceed a
certain value.  These oscillations can be prevented by the
establishment of informal links in the organization, in agreement with
observations in the social arena.
         
Next week, 17 May: On the Self-Deconstruction of the Symbolic Order,
Jean-Pierre Dupuy, French & Italian Department, Stanford University.
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		   PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT COLLOQUIUM
		Equality, Responsibility, and Justice
			    John Harsanyi
		  University of California, Berkeley
		      Friday, 11 May, 3:15 p.m.
			Building 90, Room 91A

No abstract available.
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		  LINGUISTICS DEPARTMENT COLLOQUIUM
      Nonnative Englishes: Implications from Sri Lankan English
			 Kanthasamy Parvathy
		      Friday, 11 May, 3:30 p.m.
			     Cordura 100

Nonnative Englishes are linguistic orphans in search of their parents,
whether they are institutionalized or noninstitutionalized.  Braj
Kachru (1982) identifies the "accent bar" as that which continues to
segregate the nonnative English from native English.  The secondary
indicators of nonnative English are grammatical morphemes.

In this talk, I'll demonstrate that Sri Lankan English users belong to
three different groups with respect to certain aspects of their
knowledge of English grammatical morphemes.  Even group 1 -- the users
of the institutionalized variety of South Asian English -- has some
nonstandard intuitions about the use of grammatical morphemes.  Groups
2 and 3 do not use the institutionalized variety.  They use it only as
a performance variety, i.e., a variety used for special purposes.  The
three groups differ in their grammatical performance to a great
extent.  Reflecting a universal linguistic tendency for some
grammatical categories (e.g., number, tense) to be more resistant to
deletion than others (e.g., case) (Kiparsky, 1972), avoidance of
articles, prepositions, etc.\ is common among Tamils.  For example,
beginning a sentence with a preposition is very rare and prepositional
stranding is never found in speech patterns at all.

In the second language-learning strategy, as usual, transfer takes
place in Tamil.  The conceptual transfer is common in a new context,
e.g., "I am going home."  The institutionalized English speakers use
this phrase, but many members of the other groups use the preposition
"to" before "home."  This is a conceptual transfer of case from the
Tamil directional morpheme "ku," "to."  This is a conceptual transfer,
not just a direct transfer, since "ku" is a suffix in Tamil, not a
particle.

The use of grammatical forms by various groups is analyzed based on a
preliminary random sample of seventy-five informants, twenty-five from
each of three groups.  The effect of six variables on the
grammaticality was studied.  The three groups have significant
differences.  Statistical probability of certain types of questions
established the group as the most significant variable (my hypothesis,
too).  Types of schools, residences, parents', or informants' own
occupations seem to tally with the significance of the group.

My research:

-- Linguistically, the difficult grammatical areas for the learners are
   identified, and the relative degrees of difficulty in acquiring
   grammatical morphemes are identified by statistical reliability tests.

-- Sociolinguistically, the ANOVA identifies which of the variables is
   the most significant.

-- Pedagogically, it suggests that a teacher of English should
   categorize the students into different groups and reveals why they
   have difficulties.  It also helps a teacher to select or prepare
   appropriate materials for the students.
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	    COMMONSENSE AND NONMONOTONIC REASONING SEMINAR
       Neural Net Representation of a Truth Maintenance System
			     Paul Morris
			     Intellicorp
		      Monday, 14 May, 2:30 p.m.
		       Margaret Jacks Hall 252

We show how label updating for a justification-based TMS may be
accomplished within a neural net model.  In this approach, the IN
status of a TMS node or justification is represented dynamically by a
continuously firing neuron, rather than statically as a memory trace.
This novel perspective leads to a way of defining wellfoundedness in
terms of local constraints.  It also suggests an epistemic
interpretation of a neural net as a kind of "fuzzy" TMS.
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			   POETICS WORKSHOP
	    Unstressed Syllables in the Rhythmic Patterns
		    of Contemporary Russian Verse
			   Vycheslav Ivanov
			  Moscow University
		      Tuesday, 15 May, 4:00 p.m.
			      Ventura 17

No abstract available.
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			   SYNTAX WORKSHOP
			Title to be announced
			   Robert Van Valin
		      Tuesday, 15 May, 7:30 p.m.
			     Cordura 100

No abstract available.
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		   PSYCHOLOGY DEPARTMENT COLLOQUIUM
	  Culture and the Autonomic Architecture of Emotion
			   Robert Levenson
		  University of California, Berkeley
		     Wednesday, 16 May, 3:45 p.m.
			Building 420, Room 050

No abstract available.
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